Multi-line system and method for retrieving and fulfilling items in a customer order

ABSTRACT

The customer order fulfillment system includes an order collection unit for collecting information associated with a plurality of customer orders having items and generating customer order data. Each of the plurality of customer order includes one or more items associated therewith. An order generating unit for receiving the customer order data and generating in response consolidated order fulfillment data, a pick tour generating subsystem for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data and in response thereto generating pick tour instructions associated with a pick tour, and a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for grouping together similar ones of the items associated with the plurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks. An automated fulfillment system receives the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and automatically selects one or more of the items from one or more carousels, employing the pick tour or the bulk pick.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/733,821, filed on Jan. 27, 2020 and entitled MULTI-LINESYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RETRIEVING AND FULFILLING ITEMS IN A CUSTOMERORDER, which is a continuation-in-part patent application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/727,676, filed on Dec. 26, 2019 and entitledSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING BULK PICK OF ITEMS OF A CUSTOMER ORDER,which in turn is a continuation-in-part patent application of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/514,897, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FORPERFORMING BULK PICK OF ITEMS OF A CUSTOMER ORDER, filed on Jul. 17,2019, which claims priority to provisional patent application Ser. No.62/700,619, filed on Jul. 19, 2018, and entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FORPERFORMING BULK PICK OF ITEMS OF A CUSTOMER ORDER. The contents of allof the foregoing are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Vendors, particularly in home shopping industries involving telephoneordering, mail ordering, or e-commerce, often need to fulfill andpackage customer orders to be shipped to customers. The customer ordermay include one or more product items, as well as promotionalliterature. In some circumstances, product fulfillment and packaging maybe done manually with a worker picking items corresponding to thecustomer order from a fulfillment center or warehouse and then insertingorders into packages. In order to increase efficiency over conventionalmanual picking and packaging techniques, automated picking stations andpacking machines have been introduced. However, such picking processesare designed to have a person simply pick an item from a selectedlocation and then transfer the item to a packing station for packaging,without regard to optimizing the pick route or picking and packagingprocess.

Further, conventional item picking and packaging systems require largecapital investments, and still are not fully adapted to optimize theitem picking and packaging process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to an order fulfillment system thatreceives and processes customer orders, and then determines whether thespecific items in the collected customer orders warrant the creation andexecution of a bulk pick or a pick tour to be executed by a pick agent.If the system determines that a series of pick tours are required, thepick tour subsystem receives information from the order collection unit,determines the location of the items in the warehouse based on awarehouse map, instructs the pick agent how to manage or setup a mobilepick cart, generates a value sorted tree map, and then generates a picktour plan. The pick tour plan is then converted into a pick tour to beperformed by the pick tour agent. In the pick tour, the location of theitems in the warehouse are proved to the pick agent and the pick touragent is instructed to select the items at specific locations in apredefined sequence.

The customer order fulfillment system of the present invention includesan order collection unit for collecting information associated with aplurality of customer orders from a plurality of customers andgenerating customer order data that includes data associated with eachof the plurality of customer orders and the plurality of customers,wherein each of the plurality of customer order includes one or moreitems associated therewith; an order generating unit for receiving thecustomer order data from the order collection unit and generating inresponse thereto consolidated order fulfillment data; and a pick tourgenerating subsystem for receiving the consolidated order fulfillmentdata from the order generating unit and in response thereto generatingpick instructions associated with a pick tour plan or a pick tour fromthe consolidated order fulfillment data. Further, the order fulfillmentsystem includes a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for receiving theconsolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit andgrouping together similar ones of the items associated with theplurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks, whereinone or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or morebulk pick tours, and an automated fulfillment system for receiving theconsolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit andfor automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customerorder from one or more carousels. The automated fulfillment system isconfigured for receiving the pick tour plan or the pick tour and forautomatically selecting the items in the customer order set forth in thepick tour plan or the pick tour from the one or more carousels, and/oris configured for receiving one or more of the plurality of bulk picksfor automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customerorder from the one or more carousels.

The pick tour generating subsystem comprises a map unit for storing amap having map data associated therewith that corresponds to a locationfor each of the items in a warehouse; a cart building unit forgenerating information associated with a mobile cart for use by a pickagent, wherein the mobile cart has a plurality of totes associatedtherewith and wherein each of the plurality of totes includesidentification information; a graph generating unit for generating avalue sorted tree graph by employing a value sorted tree mappingtechnique based on the map data and the consolidated order fulfillmentdata, and wherein the value sorted tree graph includes data associatingone or more of the items from the plurality of customer orders with aselected location in the warehouse; and a pick tour generator forgenerating a pick tour plan based on the value ordered tree graph andthe map data, wherein the pick tour plan correlates items of thecustomer orders at multiple selected locations in the warehouse with oneor more of the plurality of totes in the mobile cart. The cart buildingunit determines the number of the totes for the mobile cart and theidentification information associated with each of the plurality oftotes based on the pick tour plan.

According to another aspect of the invention, one or more of theplurality of totes includes a plurality of sub-compartments where eachof the plurality of sub-compartments includes identificationinformation. The totes can be arranged on the mobile cart according tothe requirements of the pick tour plan and optionally according to thesequence of the locations of the items in the warehouse.

According to another aspect of the invention, the value sorted treegraph is an associative array data type having values associatedtherewith, wherein the value sorted tree graph sorts the values in aselected order. The values correspond to the locations in the warehouseor to a number of the items at the locations in the warehouse. Further,the locations within the warehouse include one or more bays associatedwith each location in the warehouse, and the pick tour plan comprisesplan data correlating the location of the bay with selected ones of theitems at the locations of the bays to be placed in specific totes in themobile cart.

According to still another aspect of the invention, the pick tour planis generated by the pick tour generator by mapping the consolidatedorder fulfillment data generated by the order generating unit with thewarehouse configuration stored in the map unit via the graph generatingunit. The pick tour generator converts the pick tour plan into a picktour that sets forth an ordered list of pick tasks. Further, each of thepick tasks includes a selected one of the following: the location of thebay, identification information associated with the location of the bay,shipping information associated with one or more of the customer orders,a quantity of the items, identification information associated with eachof the items, one or more of the items to be picked from the bay, andthe tote on the mobile cart in which to place the picked items. The picktour generator generates the pick tour based on a similarity in thecustomer orders and the location of the items in the warehouse.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, the system furtherincludes a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for receiving theconsolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit andgrouping together similar ones of the items associated with theplurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks, whereinone or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or morebulk pick tours, The bulk pick order fulfillment unit groups the itemsin the consolidated order fulfillment data into shipments according toone or more predetermined logical parameters. Still further, the bulkpick order fulfillment unit includes processing hardware that isconfigured to map the one or more items in each of the plurality ofcustomer orders to product identification data, generate one or morebulk picks having associated therewith one or more bulk pick recipesfrom the data associated with the customer orders, wherein each of thebulk pick recipes includes a selected quantity of the one or more itemsfrom the plurality of customer orders and a selected quantity of one ormore additional items, and generate a bulk pick ticket associated witheach of the bulk picks.

The bulk pick ticket includes information about the one or more items inthe bulk pick recipe, and location information associated with thelocation of the one or more items in the warehouse. The bulk pick orderfulfillment unit generates a connected graph of groupings of the itemsfrom the customer orders and the one or more additional items, whereinthe items from the customer orders and the additional items form nodesof the connected graph.

According to another aspect of the invention, the system can alsoinclude a packing and shipping sub-system for packing and shipping theitems from the customer orders, as well as a controller for schedulingone or more selected time periods for performing the bulk pick tour orthe pick tour.

The present invention is also directed to a method for retrieving itemsfrom a customer order from a warehouse so as to fulfill a customerorder, comprising collecting information associated with a plurality ofcustomer orders from a plurality of customers and generating customerorder data that includes data associated with each of the plurality ofcustomer orders and the plurality of customers, wherein each of theplurality of customer order includes one or more items associatedtherewith; generating in response to the customer order dataconsolidated order fulfillment data; and receiving the consolidatedorder fulfillment data and generating pick tour instructions associatedwith a pick tour from the consolidated order fulfillment data by a picktour generating subsystem.

The method also includes receiving the consolidated order fulfillmentdata from the order generating unit and grouping together similar onesof the items associated with the plurality of customer orders to form aplurality of bulk picks with the bulk pick order fulfillment unit ,wherein one or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of oneor more bulk pick tours, and receiving the consolidated orderfulfillment data from the order generating unit and for automaticallyselecting one or more of the items in the customer order from one ormore carousels with the automated fulfillment system. The automatedfulfillment system is configured for receiving the pick tour plan or thepick tour and for automatically selecting the items in the customerorder set forth in the pick tour plan or the pick tour from the one ormore carousels, and is configured for receiving one or more of theplurality of bulk picks for automatically selecting one or more of theitems in the customer order from the one or more carousels.

According to another aspect of the invention, the method includesgenerating the pick tour plan by mapping the consolidated orderfulfillment data generated by the order generating unit with thewarehouse configuration stored in the map unit via the graph generatingunit. The method can also include converting with the pick tourgenerator the pick tour plan into a pick tour that sets forth an orderedlist of pick tasks.

According to still another aspect of the invention, the method alsoincludes a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for receiving theconsolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit andgrouping together similar ones of the items associated with theplurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks, whereinone or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or morebulk pick tours. The method can also include grouping the items in theconsolidated order fulfillment data into shipments according to one ormore predetermined logical parameters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bemore fully understood by reference to the following detailed descriptionin conjunction with the attached drawings in which like referencenumerals refer to like elements throughout the different views. Thedrawings illustrate principals of the invention and, although not toscale, show relative dimensions.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of the order fulfillment system ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart diagram illustrating the steps forgenerating a bulk pick recipe according to the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a connected tree map diagram for determining the relationshipbetween various items in various customer orders according to theteachings of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a depiction of the bulk picks and corresponding bulk pickrecipes according to the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a bulk pick ticket generated bythe order fulfillment system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating the steps involvedwith generating a bulk pick ticket and associated bulk pick touraccording to the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a tree map that operates as a visual representation of therelative amount of work that can potentially be fulfilled via a bulkpick order via a set of configurable operating parameters according tothe teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the pick tourgenerating unit and associated components according to the teachings ofthe present invention.

FIG. 9A is a schematic representation of a conventional unsorted treemap generated according to known techniques.

FIG. 9B is a schematic representation of a value sorted tree mapgenerated by the graph generating unit according to the teachings of thepresent invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of the display of a handhelddevice employed by the pick agents during a pick tour according to theteachings of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating the stepsinvolved with generating a pick tour plan and associated pick touraccording to the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic representation of a pick tour plan generated bythe pick tour generating unit of the order fulfillment system of thepresent invention.

FIG. 13 is a schematic representation of a pick tour generated from apick your plan by the pick tour generating unit according to theteachings of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating the stepsinvolved with picking items from a customer order via a bulk pick recipeby employing the automated fulfillment system according to the teachingsof the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating the stepsinvolved with picking items from a customer order via a pick tour byemploying the automated fulfillment system according to the teachings ofthe present invention.

FIG. 16 is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating the stepsinvolved with picking items from a customer order via a bulk pick recipeand/or a pick tour by employing the automated fulfillment system as wellas a pick agent according to the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a schematic representation of the automated fulfillmentsystem of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a schematic block diagram depicting an embodiment of anetwork environment comprising client devices in communication withservers through a network arrangement.

FIGS. 19 and 20 are schematic block diagrams depicting embodiments ofcomputing devices useful for the methods and systems described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention address these and otherproblems associated with the picking of items corresponding to acustomer order by employing an order fulfillment system for picking theitems and then packaging and shipping the items to the customer.

The present invention is directed to a time based customer ordering andcustomer order consolidation system suitable for use in an automated orpartially automated order fulfillment environment. The customer ordercan include one or more items that the customer has selected orpurchased, and can if desired include additional items, such as warrantyinformation, sales or promotional literature and related brochures, iteminstructions and the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the order fulfillment system 10 of the presentinvention includes an order collation or collection unit 12 forcollecting or collating customer orders as they are entered into thesystem. As is known in the art, the customer orders can be introduced orentered into the system either through the Internet via a websiteordering operation or can be entered into the system by a customerservice representative while accepting order instructions directly fromthe customer, such as over a telephone. The customer order collectionunit 12 in connection with the database 24 can generate customer andorder information or data that is transmitted and received by an ordergenerating unit 14. The order collection unit 12 consolidates theincoming customer orders and organizes and consolidates selected orderand customer information from the customer orders, including for examplethe customer ID, the shipment address, type of shipment, number of itemsin the customer order, and the like. This information can be stored atone or locations, including for example he database 24. The ordergenerating unit 14 is configured for controlling and managing the orderdata for fulfillment at a warehouse in a time based manner. As usedherein, the term “warehouse” is intended to include any facility orbuilding that stores items therein for retrieval by personnel forsubsequent shipping to, for example, a customer or another building. Thewarehouse can include for example a fulfillment facility. The order datais preferably organized and managed by the order generating unit 14 soas to optimize the selection (e.g., picking) of the items in thecustomer order and then shipping the items to the customer in anexpeditious manner.

The order generating unit 14 can be monitored by a separate computingsystem and/or a warehouse supervisor via the computing system todetermine the order fulfillment actions that need to be taken. The ordergenerating unit 14 is adapted or configured to prepare a set of orderfulfillment instructions or data for fulfilling the incoming customerorders in a time based manner. The fulfillment order instructions can bebased on a set of logical rules and ordering priorities for releasingone or more customer orders to be fulfilled by the order fulfillmentsystem 10.

The consolidated order fulfillment instructions or data generated by theorder generating unit 14 can be transmitted to an automated fulfillmentsystem 16, such as an automated product picking system, as shown forexample in FIG. 17. An example of an automated product picking systemsuitable for use with the present invention includes the systemsmanufactured and sold by SSI Schaefer, Germany. As is known in the art,the automated fulfillment system 16 can include a series of verticaltowers or stacks that include a number of distinct receptacles forstoring one or more items. The stacks can be stationary or adapted torotate about a central longitudinal axis. The stacks can be coupled toone or more movable retrieval arms or mechanisms that are adapted tomove vertically along the stacks and if desired between the stacks. Theitems or products retrieved by the movable arms can be placed in one ormore totes or bins, which in turn can be moved or conveyed along aconveyance system. The conveyance system can include tracks with rollersand the like. The automated fulfillment system 16 can be controlled oroperated by a central or a dedicated computing system.

Alternatively, the order generating unit 14 can transmit the orderfulfillment instructions to a bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18. Forexample, according to one practice, the order generating unit 14 can beconfigured to group together a set of customer orders that share similarfeatures, items or traits, into a larger bulk pick order, and the bulkpick order data can be transmitted to the bulk pick order fulfillmentunit 18. Alternatively, the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 cangenerate the bulk pick data. The bulk pick orders (e.g., a bulk pickorder wave) are groupings of customer orders that may be picked orfulfilled in a warehouse in aggregate as opposed to fulfilling eachcustomer order independently. As such, warehouse data can include theconfiguration of the warehouse, which can include for example rows ofstorage racks with associated storage bins, and data associated withspecific items located in specific bins at specific warehouse locations,can be stored in the database 24 or elsewhere in the system 10 and isaccessible by the order generating unit 14, the bulk pick orderfulfillment unit 18 and the pick tour generating unit 20. The bulk pickorders forming the bulk pick wave are selected so as to optimize thefulfillment process by selecting orders that have certain features,items or traits in common. The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 cangenerate data associated with a bulk pick that can form part of a bulkpick tour or wave, and which can be fulfilled by the automated productpicking system 16, by one or more mobile operators or pick agents thatmanually pick one or more items corresponding to the bulk pick tour, orby both. As used herein, the term “bulk pick,” “bulk pick tour,” or“bulk pick wave,” is intended to mean a plurality of similar oridentical items that are grouped or bulked together and which can beselected based on the warehouse data from a selected warehouse location.The bulk picks or grouped items when assigned to the automatedfulfillment system and/or to a pick tour agent for retrieval form thebulk pick tours. The bulk picks or bulk pick tours can then be assignedto the pick agents and/or to the automated fulfillment unit separately,concurrently or in series to form a bulk pick wave.

Additionally or alternatively, the order generating unit 14 caninterface with a pick tour generating unit 20, which receives the orderfulfillment instructions from the order generating unit 14. The picktour generating unit 20 can generate pick tour instructions for a singleitem or a multi-item order. The pick tour instructions can be forwardedto the automated product picking system and/or to a pick tour mobileoperator for performing a pick tour. The pick tour generating unit 20generates pick tour instructions based on the consolidated customerorder information received from the order generating unit 14. The picktour instructions leverage the similarity in customer orders and itemlocations within the warehouse so as to minimize the amount of time ittakes to pick the one or more items that comprise the customer order.The pick tour instructions can generate or be converted into a pick tourthat can be assigned to pick agents or mobile operators. The pick agentscan utilize a mobile cart that has selected compartments associatedtherewith to manually pick or select the items that correspond to thecustomer orders from the warehouse. The pick agent can employ a handheldscanning device, such as for example the conventional handheld scannerssold by Intermec, that can guide the pick agent to the selected locationof the item and assist the pick agent in selecting the correct item. Thehandheld device also serves to allow the order fulfillment system 10 totrack and verify the location of the pick agent, and to perform productand location verification in real time. As used herein, the term “picktour” is intended to mean a series of instruction that include one ormore pick tasks that when aggregated or consolidated together form atour. The tour is in essence a series of instructions sent to the pickagent to pick, select or retrieve one or more items associated with oneor more customer orders from selected locations within the warehouse.Alternatively, the pick tour can be performed by the automatedfulfillment system 16, which receives the aggregated list of items (ortour) from the pick tour generating unit and retrieves the items fromselected locations within the automated fulfillment system.

Once the customer order have been picked and fully assembled, thecontents of the order can be assembled into totes or compartments oftotes, which are then placed on a conveyor belt and sent to a packingand shipping subsystem 22. A packaging and shipping subsystem suitablefor use with the present invention includes the packing stationdisclosed in U.S. Publ. No. 2014/0360141, to the assignee hereof, thecontents of which are herein incorporated by reference. In transit, theorder fulfillment system 10 can also include structure for automaticallyprinting a customer invoice and/or packing slips for insertion withinthe corresponding compartment within the tote. The illustrated packingand shipping subsystem 22 receives the totes and packages the contentsof each compartment of the tote for shipping to the customer.

As shown, the illustrated order fulfillment system 10 can also include ageneral database 24 for storing information concerning the customerorders as well as selected information corresponding to each of theillustrated units and subsystems. Specifically, the database 24 canstore customer information, including customer name, address, financialpayment details, order history and the like. The database 24 can alsostore information regarding the items that are stored in the warehouseas well as the warehouse information. The item information can includedetails of each item, including item type, description, price, quantityand the like. The database can also be configured to store informationregarding the programs and associated segments or plays that arebroadcast, as well as the sequence of items that are displayed anddiscussed during the program.

The order generating unit 14 of the present invention is configured tocollect data associated with the customer orders and prepare a set oforder fulfillment instructions for fulfilling the incoming customerorders in a time based manner. The order fulfillment instructions can bebased on a set of logical rules and ordering priorities for releasingone or more customer orders to be fulfilled by the order fulfillmentsystem 10. The order generating unit 14, based on the number of customerorders, and the overlap or similarity between the items in the orders,can send instructions to the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 toexecute a bulk pick of selected items. The order generating unit 14 orthe bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 can schedule the bulk pick at atime of day that is convenient based on the total number of customerorders being handled, the time of day, the number of pick agentsassigned to the warehouse floor, and the like.

The order generating unit 14 can generate a color coded or non-colorcoded tree map that can be displayed to the supervisors on a suitabledisplay device as a visual representation of the relative amount of workthat can potentially be fulfilled via a bulk pick order by the bulk pickorder fulfillment unit 18 under a set of configurable operatingparameters. An example of such a tree map is shown in FIG. 7. As shown,the order fulfilment system 10 can generate content that is displayed ona window or interface on a display device. The illustrated window 112can include one or more panes 114 to display selected content associatedwith the customer orders and to enable or allow a user to customize viaselectable parameters the metric associated with a bulk pick or wave.The panes 114 can include pane 114A that is positioned in an upperportion or region of the window 112 and which displays a set of userselectable parameters 116. The parameters 116 can include the selectedwarehouse 116A, the maximum number of results 116B to be considered bythe bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18, the maximum and minimum numberof different multi-item combinations (e.g., recipes) 116C to generateper bulk pick, the maximum recipes per bulk pick 116E, the line type116F which includes whether a single item, multi-item, or both singleitem and multi-item orders should be included in the tree map and thepick location 116G (e.g., static (non-automated) or automatedfulfillment system). The order generating unit 14 can then generate amap of the bulk wave for visual display to the user. The flexibility ofthese parameters enables the supervisor to adapt the amount and types ofwork they have pending in the order collection unit 12 to the availablepick agents and availability of other system equipment, including theautomated fulfillment system 16. The foregoing features or parameterscan be presented to the supervisor in any suitable format, and canpreferably be displayed in a dashboard format via the pane elements 114.The order generating unit 14 can release order information to the bulkpick order fulfillment unit 18 to generate bulk picks and to the picktour generating unit 20 to generate mobile pick tours for the pickagents. The order generating unit 14 via the window 112 can display themap that can be illustrated as a set of pane elements 114A-114F. Each ofthe respective panel elements 114A-114F contains the total number ofcustomer orders that are included in the bulk pick. Larger numbers arecontained in larger rectangles in the tree map and are ordered such thatthe larger total order counts are placed in a top-to-bottomleft-to-right ordered by size. In addition to the size of the rectangleindicating the relative number of orders, the color of the rectangle maybe used as a visual indicator of the estimated size or effort (e.g., redindicating a large number of orders, and blue representing a lowernumber of orders). This coloring technique offers a visual heat map ofthe orders that can be generated into bulk picks allowing a user torapidly visually inspect the number of orders and estimate the effortinvolved to fulfill the respective bulk picks when released. The window112 also displays on a bottom portion thereof parameter values selectedby the user, including the bulk pick count, shipment count, as well asaction buttons 118 that allow the user to select the illustratedparameters or to release the bulk wave to the system 10. As used herein,a pane element can be a user interface or portion thereof, such as ascreen, a space, a surface, or the like.

The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 employs processing hardware forimplementing heuristics and rule based schedules that determine theoptimal way to group items in the customer orders into shipments. Thelogical parameters include consideration of the payment status of thecustomer or of the customer orders, destination addresses, and servicessuch as sizing and appraisals that may have been applied to the items ofthe customer order. The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 alsoconsiders the shipping option selected by the customer and theguaranteed or estimated shipping dates that were communicated to thecustomer, as well as other factors, including grouping of items based onspecific product brand, sales of items, and different sales channels.

Consolidating customer orders into shipments using the foregoingtime-based process has multiple benefits and advantages. One advantageis that the process reduces the amount of shipment packaging materialsneeded, reduces the number of promotional inserts needed, and reducesthe overall postage cost of shipping the packages. Additionally,customers may be incentivized to purchase additional items by reducedshipping and handling rates for additional items purchased within aselected time period, such as for example a twenty four hour timeperiod.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flow chart diagram that illustrates the process ormethod that the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 employs to generateone or more bulk picks or bulk pick recipes from the consolidated orderfulfillment data received from the order generating unit 14. The bulkpick order fulfillment unit 18 includes processing hardware, such as ahardware processor or controller, that is configured to initially mapitems in the customer order to product identification (ID) data andselected quantities of product, step 30. For example, as shown in FIG.3, the illustrated bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 generates aconnected graph 26 of groupings of customer orders and correspondingitems, and then devolves the customer orders into constituent items andcorresponding inserts such as informational, warranty, and marketingmaterials, and places them on the connected graph as nodes. As shown,and according to a simple example, the items that form part of thispotential bulk group of customer orders include three different productitems designated as ABC123, DEF456, and DQK928 that were purchased bycustomers and formed part of the customer order data. In addition to thecustomer items, the example assumes that the orders also include a newcustomer card designated as NEW CUST and a warranty card. The number ofpurchased items that overlap and require warranty and new customer cardsare illustrated by the connecting lines with corresponding amounts ornumbers. Specifically, the number of customers that purchased selecteditems and require a warranty or new customer card are shown in theintermediate number boxes. As shown, one hundred (100) customerspurchased all three items and require a warranty card and a new customercard; one hundred fifty (150) customers only purchased the item DQK928;only forty (40) customers purchased item DEF456; forty (40) customerspurchased all three items and are not receiving any inserts, and soforth. Other item amounts are also shown.

The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 can also generate one or morebulk pick recipes from the data associated with the connected graph,step 32. As used herein, the term “recipe” or “bulk pick recipe” isintended to mean a collection of selected items from the customer ordersand the additional items that are correlated or grouped together. Asshown in FIG. 4, a user such as the supervisor can select variousparameters or features 58 of the bulk pick in the bulk pick orderfulfillment unit 18. For example, a user or the system 10 can define themaximum number of recipes per bulk pick, the maximum item count per bulkpick, and the minimum bulk group item count. Once the user has selectedthese parameters, the resulting calculated values for the bulk pick arepresented including the total number of ingredients (i.e. items), thetotal number of recipes, and the total number of bulk picks that aregenerated. As shown, the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 generatesand constructs bulk picks 42, 44, and 46, where each bulk pick comprisesa selected number of bulk pick recipes or bulk groups. The bulk pickorder fulfillment unit 18 can determine the bulk pick group or recipesequence by determining the largest or smallest matching product or itemcount and then determining the largest or smallest number of inserts.The system can thus organize and aggregate the data in ascending ordescending order relative to the number of items in the bulk pick. Thoseof ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the item datafrom the connected graph 26 can be organized in other ways as well. Asillustrated, bulk pick 42 includes bulk pick recipes 52, 54 and 56; bulkpick 44 includes recipes 60 and 62; and bulk pick 46 includes recipes 66and 68. Each of the above recipes includes one or more ingredients oritems. For example, recipe 52 includes five ingredients, including itemsDQK928, ABC123, and DEF456, as well as the new customer insert NEW CUSTand the warranty insert. Recipe 54 includes items DQK928, ABC123, andDEF456 with no additional inserts, and recipe 56 includes, foringredients, items ABC123 and DEF456 and the new customer insert NEWCUST. Once the maximum number of recipes for each of the bulk picks isreached, the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 creates a further bulkpick. The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 can also generate lessthan the maximum number of bulk pick recipes, such as those associatedwith the bulk picks 44 and 46. The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18generates and organizes the bulk picks so that the most difficultrecipes are collated first into the first bulk pick. For example, asshown in FIG. 4, the bulk pick 42 includes recipes 52, 54, 56 that aremore complicated than the recipes in the other bulk picks 44 and 46.

When the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 generates one or more bulkpick recipes that include ingredients (or the recipe itself) outside ofone or more of the predetermined parameters, the unit 18 does notgenerate a bulk pick employing these recipes. The bulk picks andcorresponding bulk pick recipes can be utilized by the system 10, suchas by the pick tour generating unit 20 or the automated fulfillmentsystem 16 so that the ingredients within the recipe are selected eitherby pick agents via a mobile tour or by the automated system. Further,the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 partitions or separates the bulkpicks from each other according to the bulk pick group count parameterand the maximum item count per bulk pick parameter.

The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 then generates a bulk pick sheetor ticket that corresponds to each of the bulk picks 42, 44, 46, step34. The bulk pick ticket is sent to either a mobile pick agent and/or tothe automated fulfillment system 16 to retrieve the items, step 36. Ifthe bulk pick ticket is sent to the automated system 16, processinghardware and corresponding software associated with the system 10 or theautomated system 16 can perform the retrieval of the items based on theinformation contained within the bulk pick ticket. FIG. 5 is an exampleof a bulk pick ticket 80 generated by the bulk pick order fulfillmentunit 18 according to the teachings of the present invention. The bulkpick ticket 80 can be printed by any suitable printing device associatedwith or coupled to the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 or the bulkpick ticket can be transmitted to other portions of the system 10 viaprocessing hardware. The illustrated bulk pick ticket 80 can include anyselected type and arrangement of information, and includes for example adescription and image of one or more items, such as the illustrated Item1 and Item n. The first listed item in the bulk pick ticket 80 is Item1, and includes information such as the description and image of theitem 82 to be picked from the warehouse, one or more locations of theitem 84 in the warehouse, as well as the quantity of the item 86 to bepicked. Similarly, Item n includes information such as the descriptionand image of the item 92 to be picked from the warehouse, a location ofthe item 94 in the warehouse, as well as the quantity of the item 96 tobe picked. The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 can print one or moreof the bulk pick tickets 80 for use by the system and by, for example, apick agent. A bar code 88 can also be associated with the bulk pickticket 80 so that the pick agent and subsequent handlers of the itemscan determine the customer orders associated with the items via barcodescan.

The items identified by the bulk pick process of the bulk pick orderfulfillment unit 18 and as set forth in the bulk pick ticket 80 can bepicked according to the following process. One of ordinary skill in theart will readily recognize that the process can include additional stepsor can omit one or more of the following steps without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, the order fulfillment system 10 of thepresent invention collates and collects the customer order informationwith the order collection unit 12, and conveys this information to theorder generating unit 14. The order generating unit 14 visually displaysthe order data through a display device to a warehouse supervisor, whosets or selects certain bulk wave parameters. For example, the system 10can generate the tree map shown in FIG. 7 for use by the supervisor. Theorder generating unit 14 also receives other related information, suchas additional customer information, order status information, and othersystem related information, from the database 24. The order generatingunit 14 then transmits consolidated order fulfillment information to thebulk pick order fulfillment unit 18. The bulk pick order fulfillmentunit 18 generates the bulk picks, step 102, as shown in FIG. 6. The bulkpick and related customer order and item information is sent to a printdevice to print the bulk pick ticket 80, step 104. The bulk pick ticket80 is received by a pick agent in the warehouse who creates or employs abulk pick cart for temporarily storing the items associated with thebulk pick. The pick agent then starts a bulk pick tour, step 106. Thepick agent moves along a path in the warehouse that is optionallyoptimized by the system 10 to retrieve or pick the items at selectedlocations. The selected items are then placed in selected compartmentswithin each tote that is stored on the cart, or kept separated incontainers or bags. The bulk pick ticket is then associated with one ormore of the totes, step 108. Specifically, the bulk pick ticket can beplaced on one of the totes, typically the tote on top when stacked, oris affixed to the cart in cases of very large bulk picks. The cart andassociated totes are then moved to a selected area in the warehouse, andthe totes are moved from the cart to a temporary holding station, andare then transferred by any suitable mechanism, including a conveyorbelt system, to a bulk packing station, step 110. A bulk pack agentassociated with the bulk pack station then scans the barcode on the bulkpick ticket 80 to determine if the recipes of the bulk pick arecomplete. If not, then the agent keeps assembling customer ordersaccording to the bulk pick recipe until the recipe is complete. If morethan one recipe is included in the bulk pick, then the next unfinishedrecipe is loaded for continued processing. The items are then packed andshipped to the customer according to known techniques.

The bulk picking of items in customer orders by the bulk pick orderfulfillment unit 18 offers additional benefits and advantages. Forexample, a bulk pick is more efficient than a shipment pick performed bypick agents in situations where there are many customers that orderedthe same set of items. This is because the pick agent only needs tovisit a location once per item, and can pick multiple ones of the sameitem at the same time. Although the pick agent can employ a mobile cartfor picking multiple single item shipments, or multiple multi-itemshipments on a cart while performing non-bulk picks, a barcode scan isrequired on each item and tote compartment to perform an association toensure item movement tracking accuracy. The bulk pick process can handlemuch larger quantities or items per pick, and does not require a barcodescan.

By way of example, consider a situation where one hundred customersordered the same item. A pick agent can be directed to pick one hundredof the same item from a stock location and then take the entire group toa bulk processing station where the weight of the item and inserts isacquired once, customer invoices are printed, and then the agentassembles the individual shipments like stuffing envelopes. In additionto single item bulk picks, the system 10 supports multi-item picks andalso takes into account any promotional, product oriented, or customeroriented inserts such that each of the recipes is unique. An example ofa multi-item bulk pick is an ensemble scenario where one hundredcustomers ordered a ring, and fifty of those customers also ordered thematching bracelet, and another twenty five customers ordered just thebracelet. This would yield a bulk pick with two items: one hundredrings, and seventy five bracelets. This example bulk pick is thenassembled into separate customer orders from a total of three recipes:fifty of just the ring, fifty of the ring and bracelet, and twenty-fiveof just the bracelet. In addition, customer oriented inserts yield morevariations of these recipes, but ultimately there is a single pick ofjust two items that was able to fulfill all of these permutations.

The ability to pick single item shipments and multi-line shipments inparallel via bulk pick reduces the amount of distance and time that ittakes to pick the customer shipments. An additional benefit of using thebulk pick process and system is being able to utilize less sophisticatedmachinery to perform the final packaging step of processing theshipment.

The illustrated pick tour generating unit 20 in FIGS. 1 and 8 isdescribed in further detail herein, with reference for example to FIGS.1-7 and with further reference to FIGS. 8-13. The order generating unit14 of the order fulfillment system 10 interfaces or communicates withthe pick tour generating unit 20, which receives the order fulfillmentinstructions 26 from the order generating unit 14. The pick tourgenerating unit 20 generates pick instructions for a single item or amulti-item order. The pick instructions can be forwarded to theautomated product picking system 16 and/or to a pick tour mobileoperator for performing a pick tour.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 8, the order generating unit 14 communicateswith the pick tour generating unit 20 via output data signal 28. Theorder generating unit 14 organizes and collates customer orders into aset of shipments. The pick tour generating unit 20 forms part of theillustrated pick tour generating sub-system 29. A shipment consists of aunique shipment identifier and a set of location and quantity pairs.Further, a graph, map or other representation of the warehouse layout orfootprint (“map”) can be created and stored, such as for example in thewarehouse map unit 120. The warehouse map can include indicia indicativeof multiple rows of shelving, as well as indicia associated with thebays or vertical locations located along the rows of shelving. Othertypes of marking or location related information can also be used. Thewarehouse map unit 120 can be any selected storage element that isconfigured for storing warehouse map data. The warehouse map unit 120can be a stand-alone storage element or can be integrated with one ormore other system units, such as for example with the database 24 or thepick tour generating unit 20. For the sake of simplicity, the warehousemap unit 120 is illustrated as a separate unit. The warehouse map unit120 can also store the locations in the warehouse where various itemsare stored, as well as the selected vertical bay at the warehouselocation. The items correspond to one or more items that form part ofthe customer order.

The order fulfillment system 10 of the present invention employs a cartbuilding unit 128 that stores, transmits and receives data associatedwith a mobile cart, and specifically includes a container or tote datafor use by the pick agent as how to best arrange totes or containers ona mobile cart employed by the pick agent. The tote data can correspondto data associated with specific totes as well as to sub-compartmentswithin the totes. The totes and associated sub-compartments are arrangedand scheduled consistent with the pick orders sent to the pick agent.Similar to the warehouse map unit 120 and the graph generating unit 124,the cart building unit 128 can be a separate element or can form part ofthe pick tour generating unit 20. The totes on the mobile cart can beuniquely identified by identification (ID) information, which caninclude any type of suitable data, including for example alphanumericdata. The ID information can be encoded in a barcode that can be placedon the front or back of the tote that is scanned while on a cart or on asuitable transport system (e.g., a conveyor belt) within the warehouse.The tote can include one or more sub-compartments, such as for examplefour sub-compartments or quadrants. In addition to the barcodes on theexterior of the tote, each sub-compartment of the tote can also includeunique identification information, such as a barcode. The ID informationassociated with each sub-compartment is used and scanned by the pickagent. The sub-compartments can house one or more selected itemsassociated with a shipment. The ID information can be exchanged with thecart building unit 128 and/or with the pick tour generating unit 20.

The pick tour generating unit 20 can for example perform a mappingbetween the customer orders or shipments and warehouse locations in theform of a map, such as a shipment-bay graph. This mapping or graphingcan be performed by the graph generating unit 124. The graph generatingunit 124 can be a separate element or can form part of the pick tourgenerating unit 20. The graphing can be performed in a manner so as tooptimize the time and distance that a pick agent needs to travel whenpicking or selecting certain items. The items correspond to one or moreportions of one or more customer orders. The graphing can also beoptimized so as to avoid potential collisions between pick agents and toconsider the location of any selected transport system, such as conveyorbelts, so as to ensure that the pick agent has relatively easy andspeedy access to the transport system. The graph generating unit 124also generates the graph employing shipments or customer orders thatinclude more than one item located at more than one location.

The illustrated graph generating unit 124 can employ a value sorted treemap technique when generating the map or graph. An example of the valuesorted tree map 130 is shown for example in FIGS. 9A and 9B.Specifically, FIG. 9B illustrates that the value sorted tree map 130 isan associative array data type that enables high-speed graphmodification while concomitantly maintaining value sort order. Theassociative array data type, also known as a map, comprises a collectionof keys, including (key, value) pairs, such that a value can be quicklyretrieved by the key, without necessitating an ordering of the set ofvalues that the keys are mapped to. When employing the value orderedtree map 130, the ordering of the values are retained during access,insertions, and deletions, thus allowing for optimization of graphtraversal because the values do not need to be re-sorted before use orafter modification.

An example of the value sorted tree map 130 compared to traditionalmapping techniques is shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B. FIG. 9A shows a map 132with a list of items having associated identifications, such as L101,L102, L103, and L104. The items are mapped to graph nodes A, B, C, andD, which can according to one practice correspond to warehouselocations. The traditional map implementation does not guarantee theorder in which the values associated with the items illustrated in themap 132 are retrieved by the pick agent. Before deciding which graphnode is the next in the sequence to be processed, the map values have tobe sorted again. For example, the values for the A node are L102, L101,and L103, which needs to be sorted into L101, L102 and L103 beforeselecting the next node in the sequence. The sorting functionality isalso required when processing the other map nodes B, C, and D. Thecontinuous need for re-sorting introduces significant overhead whenprocessing large graphs in both computation times for the sort, as wellas the physical computing resources required, such as processingcapabilities and memory.

The value sorted tree map 130 of the present invention ensures that thevalues or node links remain in a sorted order during access, insertion,and deletion which removes the need to sort all of the value nodes whendeciding which node to process next in the graph. For example, as shownin FIG. 9B, the items are presorted and listed as L101, L102, L103, andL104, and then mapped to the graph nodes A, B, C and D. When the valueL101 is removed for example from the value sorted map for node A, thenthe new first value becomes L102, without the need to re-sort the valuesof the map. The value sorted map technique of the present invention ishighly beneficial for graph processing algorithms that alter the graphby removing nodes during graph traversal. As such, the present sortingtechnique significantly reduces the amount of processing overhead andmemory needed while processing the graph. By maintaining the high speedkey to value lookup characteristics of a map, and automaticallyimplementing and maintaining sort order on modification, the valuesorted tree map provides a very efficient technique for optimizing graphprocessing. Further, shipments of customer orders that have more thanone location pick are placed in the graph. The orders that have a singleitem or location can be handled separately.

When creating the value sorted tree map 130, the incoming customerorders or shipments are analyzed by the order generating unit 14 todetermine if the order is to be handled by the automated shipment system16, by the pick agent as part of a pick tour plan or a pick tour, or acombination of both. When the system 10 with the assistance of thesupervisor determines that the order or part of the order is to behandled by the pick agent, the pick tour generating unit 20 determinesif the order includes items located at multiple different locations inthe warehouse. The system can easily determine the warehouse bay fromthe warehouse location. If the bay node exists, then the quantity of thepick from the bay can be incremented. If the shipment node does notalready exist in the map, the pick tour generating unit 20 creates a newgraph or bay node in the map. The system then adds a link from theshipment node to the bay node in the graph and the pick tour generatingunit 20 tracks the quantity of the shipment in the bay/node structure.The resultant graph or map is then value sorted by the first baylocation and/or bay count, and then the subsequent bay location. The mapis then sorted by location. The graph is processed in such a manner thatoptimizes the assignment of orders into an N number of thesub-compartments or the compartments of the mobile cart. Further, thesystem 10, such as through the pick tour generating unit 20 and/or thegraph generating unit 124, analyzes the customer order and shipmentinformation and inserts the shipment data into the graph and creates anew graph node for the shipment if the bay node does not exist. For eachitem of the shipment determine a corresponding warehouse location, andthen determine a warehouse bay from the location. The system then adds alink in the graph between the bay node and the shipment node. Theshipment graph is then value sorted by the first bay location, baycount, and then subsequent bay location.

The pick tour generating unit 20 then constructs a pick tour plan or apick tour having pick instructions associated therewith. The pick tourplan and the pick tour essentially provide a schedule or list of tasksfor the pick agent to follow. The pick tour plan is constructed orgenerated so as to optimize the path distance through the warehouse aswell as the number of pick tasks that a pick agent can execute wheneventually performing the pick tour. Factors that the order fulfillmentsystem 10 considers when optimizing or constructing the pick tour plancan include but are not limited to avoiding impediments or obstacleswithin the warehouse, such as for example walls and machinery, preferredhuman walking paths, opportunistic drop-off points like the centralconveyor belt and location stock density as well as travel distance andquantities of products picked. Permissions required of the pick agentare also considered as picking expensive items, oversized items, orfragile items may require different levels of authorization or skillsets to perform. For example, a new pick agent may not have permissionto execute a tour that contains important or expensive items.

Further, the cart building unit 128 employs the pick tour plan to helpconstruct the pick cart by determining the number of totes andsub-compartments, and associating therewith the appropriateidentification information. The pick tour plans are preferablyconstructed or generated so as to include trips by the pick agents togenerally the same number of bays as well as the same number of picks oritems, while concomitantly minimizing the overall or total walkingdistance by the pick agent. The pick plans are constructed by mappingthe shipments or customer orders collected by the order generating unit14 with the warehouse configuration data stored in the warehouse mapunit 120 by the graph generating unit 124. The shipments that includemore than one location pick are placed in the graph. The shipments thatare directed to a single piece or warehouse location can be later addedto the below pick tour. The pick plan includes a list or set of picktasks that are segmented or partitioned into selected warehouselocations, thus creating different pick tasks for each warehouse zone.

As shown in FIG. 12, a pick tour plan 156 can be created by the picktour generating unit 20 and includes the illustrated pick instructions157. According to one practice, the pick tour plan 156 can be optionallyemployed by the pick agent to retrieve or pick the items set forth inthe pick instructions. Alternatively, the pick tour plan 156 can beconverted into the pick tour 174 for use by the pick agent. By way ofillustrative example, the illustrated pick tour plan 156 has beengenerated by the pick tour generating unit 20 and includes pickinstructions 157 directed to four different customer shipments, whichare labeled as ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’. By way of illustration, anexemplary mobile cart can be configured to use only three reusable slots153 of the various slots on the cart. The slots 153 can be designated asslot1, s1ot2, and s1ot3, and form part of the pick instructions 157.When a customer shipment has been fully assembled, as depicted bysuitable completion indicia, such as darkened triangles 155 in thebottom corner of the pick tour plan 156, the customer shipment is placedin a bag by the pick agent and labeled with a barcode so that the sameslot may then be used to assemble a different customer shipment. In theexample configuration of FIG. 12, the initial state of the pick tourplan is the start state 158 where each of the three slots 153 on themobile cart is indicated as being empty. The warehouse map stored in thewarehouse map unit 120 can include a number of bay locations 154 in themap. The pick tour plan 156 essentially sets forth a series of baylocations in the warehouse that the pick agent is instructed to visit toretrieve selected items located at the bay locations and that correspondto various customer orders. The bay locations 154 can include forexample a first bay location in the warehouse that forms part of thepick tour plan 156,which can have any suitable designation, such as forexample L102, as illustrated. As such, the pick agent is instructed by amobile device user interface to pick a selected item for customershipment ‘a’ into slot1 and the same item into s1ot2 for shipment ‘b’.No pick was planned for s1ot3 at bay location L102, thus s1ot3 remainsempty. The pick agent is then directed by the mobile device userinterface to walk to the next bay location K105. Additional items arepicked from this location for shipments ‘a’ and ‘b’, and which areplaced in slot1 and s1ot2, respectively, and customer shipment ‘c’ isstarted by placing the item in the formerly empty s1ot3. The pick agentis then directed by the mobile device user interface to walk to the nextbay location J102. Items are picked for shipment ‘a’ in slot1 andshipment ‘c’ in s1ot3, however shipment ‘b’ does not have any picks atlocation J102. However, the previously picked items continue to occupys1ot2 because not all items for customer shipment ‘b’ have been picked.The customer shipments “a” and “c” are completed, as indicated by thecompletion indicia 155, and hence these items are bagged by the pickagent and labeled with the shipment number and then placed in a bin ofcompleted shipments on the cart or directly on conveyance equipment suchas a central conveyor belt destined for the packaging operation. Becausecustomer shipments ‘a’ and ‘c’ are now complete, the respective slotsslot1 and s1ot3 are now eligible to be used to assemble a differentshipment. The pick agent is then directed by the mobile device userinterface to walk to the next bay location M201. The pick agent isdirected to pick items for customer shipment ‘d’, which is placed inslot1, as well as for customer shipment ‘b’, which is in s1ot2. The lastitem for customer shipment ‘b’ is picked, as indicated by the completionindicia 155. Slot3 remains empty because shipment ‘c’ has already beencompleted and taken out of the slot on the previous bay visit. The pickagent is then directed by the mobile device user interface to walk tothe last bay location M202, where the agent picks the last item forshipment ‘d’ from this location and the pick tour plan is complete withall four shipments ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, and ‘d’ having been picked andassembled on the mobile cart and now destined for the packing operation.

When compartmentalized totes on the mobile cart are used, the slots 153represent sub-compartments of the totes and are typically not re-usedbecause the tote itself is used as the container of the product insteadof a bag. Once all picks for all sub-compartments of the tote have beencompleted, the tote is then transported by automated conveyance or bymoving the mobile cart to a destination for unloading the totes forfurther processing.

As shown in FIGS. 8 and 13, the pick tour generating unit 20 canpreferably convert the pick tour plan 156 into the pick tour 174 havingpick instructions associated therewith that are conveyed to the mobiledevice of the pick agent. As such, the pick tour plan 156 can bedirectly converted to the pick tour 174 prior to be being sent to thepick agent. The pick tour 174 can be, if desired, tours that areconfined to selected zones or regions of the warehouse. As such, thelocation of the pick agent is considered when assigning a pick tour to aselected pick agent. The pick tour 174 includes pick instructions thatare, in essence, an ordered list of tasks to perform, which includes thelocation, quantity, and specific items to pick as well as the mobilecart slot number to place the picked items into for subsequent shipment.The pick tour instructions leverage the similarity in customer ordersand item locations within the warehouse so as to minimize the amount oftime it takes to pick the one or more items that comprise the customerorder. The pick tour includes a path that is optimized for time anddistance for the pick agent. The path can have any selectedconfiguration, and is typically a serpentine path. The mobile handhelddevice guides the pick agent to the selected location of the item in thewarehouse and assists the pick agent in selecting the correct item. Thehandheld device also serves to allow the order fulfillment system 10 totrack and verify the location of the pick agent, and to perform productand location verification in real time. The interface on the handhelddevice presents a visual interface that guides the pick agent through apick tour walking path in the warehouse while concomitantly assemblingmultiple customer shipments on a mobile cart in parallel. As notedabove, the mobile cart has a series of totes, and each tote can have oneor more sub-compartments. The pick tour generating unit 20 optimizes theuse of the totes and associated sub-compartments to sequence theassembly of multiple multi-line orders. The pick tour generally isconfined to a selected duration so that multiple sequential pick tourscan be performed by a pick agent. The duration of the pick tours can bebetween about 30 minutes and about 90 minutes, and preferably are about45 minutes.

FIG. 13 shows for the purposes of simplicity and illustration anexemplary pick tour 174 that was generated from the pick tour plan 156.The pick tour 174 is similar to the pick tour plan 156 with additionaldetailed information where specific item locations, product IDs, andquantities are specified. Unlike the pick tour plan which focused oncreating multiple optimal plans, the pick tour 174 focuses on having allof the information necessary to execute the pick or retrieval of theproduct by the pick agent. The sequence 174A is the order in which eachof the pick tasks should be performed. The location 174B is the exactbin number at the bay location and also the bar-coded value that isplaced on the bin. The shipment information 174C is the unique shipmentID that represents a customer order or grouping of customer orders forthe same shipping destination address. The product ID 174D and quantity(QTY) 174E of the product to be picked from the location 174B is used toverify that the correct product and number of products is being picked.The slot information 174F is the destination of the picked item on themobile pick cart which may be a re-usable bin or the sub-compartment ofa tote. The closed flag or indicator 174G indicates if all of the itemsfor the shipment have been picked upon the completion of the pick task.In the exemplary pick tour 174, shipments 2 and 3 174C correspond topiece picks where a customer only ordered a single product and only onequantity of that product, thus they do not need to be assembled withother products and are not placed in a slot, but instead are directlyplaced in a bag with an affixed printed adhesive barcode to identify theshipment in the bag. Once the pick agent has completed all of the picktasks in a pick tour 174, the pick tour is complete and the pick agentmay request a new pick tour. The pick tour assignment is based on thelocation of the pick agent in the warehouse relative to the firstpicking location for available pick tours. In some cases, the productstock may be segregated where special permissions may be required, suchas for example when picking high end, fragile, oversized, or otherwisecategorized products or items. The identity of the pick agent, thelocation of the pick agent, the permissions of the agent, and thepriority of the pick tour are factors that the pick tour assignmentalgorithm uses in assigning pick tours to pick agents.

Once the pick tour plan 156 is generated and transmitted to the mobiledevice of the pick agent, the pick tour 174 can be started by the pickagent. According to the present invention, the pick tour 174 includesshipments or orders that correspond to items at multiple locations inthe warehouse. The pick tour generating unit 20 can add a task to anexisting pick tour that corresponds to an item located in a convenientor “opportunistic” location along the existing pre-defined pick tourpath of the pick agent. The pick tour generating unit 20 can sort theadditional individual piece pick tasks by location and then compares thepiece pick tasks to the current pick tours or the pick tours as of yetto be assigned. The additional piece pick task typically includes one ormore items disposed at a single location that is opportunisticallylocated along the walking path of existing pick tour. The opportunisticpiece pick task added to a pre-existing pick tour is a pick task thatmeets selected heuristic calculations regarding the closeness of thelocation of the item to the pick agent, the remaining pick cartcapacity, the additional time added to the existing pick tour, andoverall collision or contention reduction with other piece pick tours.Other factors can include whether the pick agent has already visited thewarehouse location as part of the current pick tour, and whether theitem location is along or sufficiently near the path of the current picktour. The closeness of the piece pick location can be calculated interms of time and/or distance to the current pick agent and current picktour path, and the pick tour generating unit 20 can define an overallmaximum distance or time to be added to the current pick tour in orderto add one or more selected piece pick tasks to the tour. Thus, the picktour generating unit 20 contemplates adding one or more additional piecepick tasks to the tour provided that the maximum or overall distance andtime added to the pick tour is at or below the maximum amounts.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary interface or display 136 of the mobilehandheld device employed by the pick agent. The device has associatedtherewith suitable hardware, such as a scanner, processing hardware,memory and the like (not shown). The device has a display 136 that canbe configured in any selected manner. As shown, the display 136 has aseries of dedicated regions or areas that display selected types ofinformation. For example, the display has a top area or region that hassub-regions 142, 144, 146, a central area or region 140, and a bottomarea or region that has sub-regions 148, 150, and 152. The topsub-region 142 can set forth the warehouse location and bay of the itemto be retrieved. The warehouse location and bay can have identificationinformation associated therewith, such as a barcode. The handheld devicecan scan the barcode of the location, and if the location matches thelocation displayed in sub-region 142, a visual or audible alert can beprovided. In the event that the location does not match, an alternatevisual or audible alert can be provided that indicates an error. Forexample, the sub-region can change color to visually indicate that amatch exists. Conversely, the handheld device can produce an audiblesound or generate a tactile sensation. The handheld device can then beused to scan a barcode attached to the item to verify that the correctitem is being picked. The item to be picked can be displayed in thecentral region 140 along, if desired, a barcode number. The pick agentcan thus perform a secondary visual check to ensure that the picked itemvisually matches the item displayed in the region 140. This providesredundancy in the system to ensure that the pick agent is selecting orpicking the correct item and can identify situations where an item mayhave the incorrect tag or barcode. The pick agent can touch the region140 to display more detailed information about the picked product, suchas product SKU, product description, and other associated informationthat could be used to identify the item in the case that a product imageis not available or more information about the product is needed. Next,the pick agent scans the target tote compartment where the product is tobe placed, as shown in sub-compartment 146. The pick agent can alsovisually determine and confirm the number of items to be picked from thewarehouse compartment, as indicated in sub-region 144. Any one of or allof the sub-regions 142, 144, 146 can change color to visually indicate amatch between the ordered item and the product retrieved from thewarehouse bay. When completed, the pick agent travels to the nextwarehouse location provided in the pick tour.

The display 136 also includes a bottom region that includes a sub-region148 that allows the pick agent to pause or cancel the pick tour, adisplay sub-region showing the number of tasks completed and the numberof total tasks (sub-region 150), as well as a display sub-region thatallows exception information to be entered or can be used as a visualindicator of the network connection status (sub-region 152).

Once the last item for a shipment is picked and placed in a slot orsub-compartment of the tote, the pick agent is instructed that thesub-compartment is now closed and the shipment has been fully assembled.This information can be conveyed to the pick agent through the mobilehandheld device. The completed totes may then be taken off of the mobilecart and placed on a central conveyor belt or otherwise delivered to thenext step in the packing and shipping process. Alternatively, thecontents of the sub-compartment are then placed in shipping bags by thepick agent, and then the bags and/or the tote(s) are then placed on acentral conveyor belt and are sent to the packing and shipping subsystem22.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart depiction of the pick tour generation processperformed by the order fulfillment system 10 according to the teachingsof the present invention. The system 10 receives customer orderinformation from the customer and the order information is collated bythe order collection unit 12. The order collection unit 12 then conveysthis information to the order generation unit 14. The customer orderinformation is combined with the customer shipment or addressinformation either provided by the client for first time customers orthe information is retrieved from the database 24, step 160. The graphgenerating unit 124 maps the shipment data with the warehouse map datastored in the warehouse map unit 120 to generate a shipment-bay graph ormap, step 162. The map is value sorted to create a value sorted treemap. The cart building unit 128 then provides the pick tour generatingunit 20 with cart specific information or data, including identificationinformation of the containers or totes on the mobile cart, as well asidentification information for any sub-compartments within eachcontainer or tote, step 164.

Once this information is determined, the pick tour generator 20initially generates a pick tour plan 156, step 166. The pick tour plan156 is constructed or generated so as to optimize the path distancethrough the warehouse as well as the number of pick tasks that a pickagent can execute when eventually performing the pick tour. The picktour plan 156 includes location information of the customer items,including warehouse location and corresponding bay, as well as containerand sub-compartment information of the mobile cart. The pick tour planis then converted into a pick tour 174 by the pick tour generator 20,step 168. The pick tour 174 can include any information required by thepick our agent to conduct the pick tour, including the locationinformation of the items to be picked, identification information of theitems, and the quantity of the items to be picked. During the pick tour,the pick tour generator 20 can add a pick task to the current pick tourof the agent if the agent is located in a selected proximity to theitem, step 170. This opportunistic piece pick enables orders to beprocessed by the order fulfillment system 10 as expeditiously aspossible.

As shown in FIGS. 14-17, the automated fulfillment system or sub-system16 of the present invention can be any commercially available productpicking or fulfillment system, such as those manufactured by SSISchaefer of Germany. The automated fulfillment system 16 can include aseries of vertically and horizontally extending carousels 220, each ofwhich can include a plurality of spatially separated shelves or racks(not shown). The totes or tubs 222 from the system 10 can be conveyed tothe carousels 220 via a transport system, such as the illustratedconveyor system 226. The conveyor system 226 can include a series ofmechanical connections that allow one or more tubs 222 to travel bothhorizontally between rows of shelves as well as vertically among theshelves. The carousels 220 thus function automated racks of tubs thatcan retrieve a specific storage and deliver it to the conveyor system226. The conveyor system can be coupled to the shelves so that the tubscontaining items can be transported within as well as to and from theautomated fulfillment system. Mechanical arms (not shown) place itemsfrom the shelves into the tubs 222 and when a customer order iscomplete, the tubs 222 are conveyed via the conveyor system 226 to apick station 230. At the pick station 230, the items of the customerorder are removed from the tubs 222 and then placed in pick totes 228.The tubs 22s are then returned to the carousels 220. The system can becontrolled by known hardware and software, and employs a control stationto control the movement of the bins throughout. The control station canform part of the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 and/or the picktour generating unit 20, or can be a separate control station thatcommunicates with these as well as other units.

Similar to the above in connection with the bulk pick order fulfillmentunit 18, and as shown in FIG. 14, the system 10 receives shipment anditem data, step 180, from the customer orders. The customer ordercollection unit 12 generates customer and order information that istransmitted and received by the order generating unit 14. The ordercollection unit 12 consolidates the incoming customer orders andorganizes and consolidates selected order and customer information fromthe customer orders. The order generating unit 14 is configured forcontrolling and managing the order data for fulfillment in a time basedmanner. The order data is preferably organized and managed by the ordergenerating unit 14 so as to optimize the selection or picking of theitems in the customer order and then shipping the items to the customer.The order generating unit 14 then transmits the order fulfillmentinstructions or data to a bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 togenerate a bulk pick recipe, step 182.

The automated fulfillment system 16 can receive bulk pick instructionsfrom the bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 and perform an automatedpicking of items to fulfill a customer order, step 184. As describedabove, the order generating unit 14 can be configured to group togethera set of customer orders that share similar features into a larger bulkpick order, and then the bulk pick order data can be transmitted to thebulk pick order fulfillment unit 18. The bulk pick orders (e.g., a bulkorder wave) are groupings of customer orders that may be picked orfulfilled in a warehouse in aggregate. The bulk pick orders are selectedto optimize the fulfillment process by selecting orders that havecertain features in common. The bulk pick order fulfillment unit 18generates bulk pick tour data corresponding to one or more bulk picktours that can be fulfilled by the automated fulfillment system 16.

The automated fulfillment system 16 can pick the selected bulk pickitems and then place them in one or more totes or container elements.The totes are then conveyed by the conveyor system to the packing andshipping subsystem, step 186.

For items within the customer order that are not located in theautomated fulfillment system 16, the system 10 via the bulk pick orderfulfillment unit 18 can generate a bulk pick recipe and a bulk picksheet for dissemination to a pick agent, as described above.

With reference to FIG. 15, the order fulfillment system 10 can generateand send instructions to the automated fulfillment system 16 to performnon-bulk picks. For example, the pick tour generating unit 20 receivesinformation from the order generating unit 14 regarding the customerorder information, step 190. The pick tour generating unit 20 thenperforms a mapping between the customer orders or shipments andwarehouse locations in the form of a map, such as a shipment-bay graph.The pick tour generating unit 20 then constructs a pick tour plan and/orschedule for the pick agent, the automated fulfillment system, or both.The pick tour plan 156 is constructed or generated so as to optimize thepath distance through the automated system as well as the number of picktasks that a pick agent can execute when eventually performing the picktour. The pick tour generating unit 20 then converts the pick plans intopick tours 174, step 192, that are conveyed to the mobile devices of thepick agent, to the automated fulfillment system 16, or to both. The picktour 174 is an ordered list of tasks to perform, which includes thelocation, quantity, and specific items to be picked.

The automated fulfillment system 16 then picks the selected items listedin the pick tour 174 and the places the items in one or more tubs, totesor containers, step 194. The tubs or totes are then conveyed by theconveyor system to the packing and shipping subsystem, step 196.

For items within the customer order that are not located in theautomated fulfillment system 16, the system 10 via the pick tourgenerating unit 20 can generate a pick tour plan 156 or a pick tour 174for dissemination to a pick agent, as described above.

Further, the order fulfillment system 10 allows for one or more itemspicked through either the bulk wave process or the pick tour process tobe added to items picked by the automated fulfillment system 16 prior totransfer to the packing and shipping subsystem 22. This enables thesystem 10 to be able to add one or more items not located in theautomated fulfillment system to be added to an order that is primarilyfilled by the automated fulfillment system. For example, as shown inFIG. 16, the customer order collection unit 12 generates customer andorder information that is transmitted and received by the ordergenerating unit 14. The order generating unit 14 controls and managesthe order data for fulfillment in a time based manner, step 200. Theorder generating unit 14 then transmits the order fulfillmentinstructions or data optionally or alternatively to either or both thebulk pick order fulfillment unit 18 to generate a bulk pick recipe, step202, or to the pick tour generating unit 20, step 204, for generating apick tour. The steps 202 and 204 are shown in phantom to represent thateither or both are optional steps. The order fulfillment system 10 thentransfers either or both the bulk pick recipe or the pick tour plan 156to the automated fulfillment system 16 to automatically pick or retrievethe selected customer items, step 206. Once the automated system selectsone or more of the customer items, the system determines whether an itemin the bulk tour or the pick tour is located in the warehouse and not inthe automated fulfillment system. Specifically, the system 10 determinesif a static pick is needed, step 208. If a static pick is not needed,and hence all of the customer items are found within the automatedfulfillment system and are retrieved, then the system transfers orconveys the items to the packing and shipping subsystem 22, step 210.However, if one or more items are located outside of the automatedfulfillment system and hence one or more static picks are needed, thenthe system 10 generates either a bulk tour recipe or a pick tour that isconveyed to the handheld device of the pick agent. The pick agentretrieves the selected one or more customer items from the bays in theshelving in the warehouse, step 212. The items are eventually combinedwith the items picked by the automated fulfillment system. When thereare no additional items required to be picked, the items are conveyed ortransferred to the packing and shipping subsystem 22.

Exemplary Hardware

Following below and referenced above are more detailed descriptions ofvarious concepts and associated hardware of the units of the orderfulfillment system 10 of the present invention. It should be appreciatedthat various concepts introduced above and discussed in greater detailbelow may be implemented in any number of ways, as the disclosedconcepts are not limited to any particular manner of implementation.Examples of specific implementations and applications are provided belowprimarily for illustrative purposes and for providing or describing theoperating environment of the order fulfillment system of the presentinvention.

Consistent with the foregoing inventive embodiments, it is helpful todescribe aspects of the operating environment as well as associatedsystem components (e.g., hardware elements) in connection with themethods and systems described herein. For example, the order fulfillmentsystem 10 of the present invention and associated sub-systems and units,including for example the order collection unit 12, the order generatingunit 14, the automated fulfillment system 16, the bulk pick orderfulfillment unit 18, the packing and shipping sub-system 22, the picktour generating unit 20, the database 24, and any other hardware devicesincluding hand-held scanners and printers, can be coupled together in anetwork environment. Further, any system unit or combination of unitscan be consolidated on a single hardware device. For example, as shownin FIG. 18, a typical network environment can include hardware devicessuch as one or more clients 512 a-512 n (also generally referred to aslocal machine(s) 512, client(s) 512, client node(s) 512, clientmachine(s) 512, client computer(s) 512, client device(s) 512,endpoint(s) 512, or endpoint node(s) 512) in communication with one ormore servers 516 a-516 n (also generally referred to as server(s) 516,node 516, or remote machine(s) 516) and databases via one or morenetworks 514. In some embodiments, a client 512 has the capacity tofunction as both a client node seeking access to resources provided by aserver and as a server providing access to hosted resources for otherclients 512 a-512 n. The clients can be any suitable electronic orcomputing device, including for example, a computer, a server, asmartphone, a smart electronic pad, a portable computer, and the like,such as the computing device 600. The various units 12, 14, 18, 20 anddatabase 24 of the order fulfillment system 10 of the present inventioncan be implemented as a client device 512 and/or a server 516. Thesub-systems 16 and 22 of the system 10 can communicate with theremainder of the system 10 via the network 514. Although FIG. 18 shows anetwork 514 between the clients 512 and the servers 516, the clients 512and the servers 516 may be on the same network 514. In some embodiments,there are multiple networks 514 between the clients 512 and the servers516. In one of these embodiments, a network 514′ (not shown) may be aprivate network and a network 514 may be a public network. In another ofthese embodiments, a network 514 may be a private network and a network514′ a public network. In still another of these embodiments, networks514 and 514′ may both be private networks.

The network 514 may be connected via wired or wireless links. Wiredlinks may include Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), coaxial cable lines, oroptical fiber lines. The wireless links may include BLUETOOTH, Wi-Fi,NFC, RFID Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), aninfrared channel or satellite band. The wireless links may also includeany cellular network standards used to communicate among mobile devices,including standards that qualify as 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G. The networkstandards may qualify as one or more generations of mobiletelecommunication standards by fulfilling a specification or standardssuch as the specifications maintained by the InternationalTelecommunication Union. The 3G standards, for example, may correspondto the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000)specification, and the 4G standards may correspond to the InternationalMobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) specification.Examples of cellular network standards include AMPS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS,LTE, LTE Advanced, Mobile WiMAX, and WiMAX-Advanced. Cellular networkstandards may use various channel access methods e.g. FDMA, TDMA, CDMA,or SDMA. In some embodiments, different types of data may be transmittedvia different links and standards. In other embodiments, the same typesof data may be transmitted via different links and standards.

The network 514 may be any type and/or form of network. The geographicalscope of the network 514 may vary widely and the network 514 can be abody area network (BAN), a personal area network (PAN), a local-areanetwork (LAN), e.g. Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), a widearea network (WAN), or the Internet. The topology of the network 514 maybe of any form and may include, e.g., any of the following:point-to-point, bus, star, ring, mesh, or tree. The network 514 may bean overlay network, which is virtual and sits on top of one or morelayers of other networks 514′. The network 514 may be of any suchnetwork topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in the art capableof supporting the operations described herein. The network 514 mayutilize different techniques and layers or stacks of protocols,including, e.g., the Ethernet protocol, the internet protocol suite(TCP/IP), the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technique, the SONET(Synchronous Optical Networking) protocol, or the SDH (SynchronousDigital Hierarchy) protocol. The TCP/IP internet protocol suite mayinclude application layer, transport layer, internet layer (including,e.g., IPv6), or the link layer. The network 514 may be a type of abroadcast network, a telecommunications network, a data communicationnetwork, or a computer network.

In some embodiments, the network system may include multiple,logically-grouped servers 516. In one of these embodiments, the logicalgroup of servers may be referred to as a server farm 518 or a machinefarm 518. In another of these embodiments, the servers 516 may begeographically dispersed. In other embodiments, a machine farm 518 maybe administered as a single entity. In still other embodiments, themachine farm 518 includes a plurality of machine farms 518. The servers516 within each machine farm 518 can be heterogeneous, and one or moreof the servers 516 or machines 516 can operate according to one type ofoperating system platform (e.g., WINDOWS NT, manufactured by MicrosoftCorp. of Redmond, Wash.), while one or more of the other servers 516 canoperate according to another type of operating system platform (e.g.,Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X).

In one embodiment, servers 516 in the machine farm 518 may be stored inhigh-density rack systems, along with associated storage systems, andlocated in an enterprise data center. In this embodiment, consolidatingthe servers 516 in this way may improve system manageability, datasecurity, the physical security of the system, and system performance bylocating servers 516 and high performance storage systems on localizedhigh performance networks. Centralizing the servers 516 and storagesystems and coupling them with advanced system management tools allowsmore efficient use of server resources.

The servers 516 of each machine farm 518 do not need to be physicallyproximate to another server 516 in the same machine farm 518. Thus, thegroup of servers 516 logically grouped as a machine farm 518 may beinterconnected using a wide-area network (WAN) connection or ametropolitan-area network (MAN) connection. For example, a machine farm518 may include servers 516 physically located in different continentsor different regions of a continent, country, state, city, campus, orroom. Data transmission speeds between servers 516 in the machine farm518 can be increased if the servers 516 are connected using a local-areanetwork (LAN) connection or some form of direct connection.Additionally, a heterogeneous machine farm 518 may include one or moreservers 516 operating according to a type of operating system, while oneor more other servers 516 execute one or more types of hypervisorsrather than operating systems. In these embodiments, hypervisors may beused to emulate virtual hardware, partition physical hardware,virtualized physical hardware, and execute virtual machines that provideaccess to computing environments, allowing multiple operating systems torun concurrently on a host computer. Native hypervisors may run directlyon the host computer. Hypervisors may include VMware ESX/ESXi,manufactured by VMWare, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif; the Xen hypervisor,an open source product whose development is overseen by Citrix Systems,Inc.; the HYPER-V hypervisors provided by Microsoft or others. Hostedhypervisors may run within an operating system on a second softwarelevel. Examples of hosted hypervisors may include VMware Workstation andVIRTUALBOX.

Management of the machine farm 518 may be de-centralized. For example,one or more servers 516 may comprise components, subsystems and modulesto support one or more management services for the machine farm 518. Inone of these embodiments, one or more servers 516 provide functionalityfor management of dynamic data, including techniques for handlingfailover, data replication, and increasing the robustness of the machinefarm 518. Each server 516 may communicate with a persistent store and,in some embodiments, with a dynamic store.

Server 516 may be a file server, application server, web server, proxyserver, appliance, network appliance, gateway, gateway server,virtualization server, deployment server, SSL VPN server, or firewall,or any other suitable computing device, such as computing device 600. Inone embodiment, the server 516 may be referred to as a remote machine ora node. In another embodiment, a plurality of nodes may be in the pathbetween any two communicating servers. The units 12, 14, 18 and 20 ofthe order fulfillment system 10, FIG. 1, as well as the warehouse mapunit 120, cart building unit 128 and the graph generating unit 124 ofthe present invention can be stored or implemented on one or more of theservers 516 or clients 512, and the hardware associated with the serveror client, such as the processor or CPU and memory.

The client 512 and server 516 may be deployed as and/or executed on anytype and form of computing device, such as for example a computer,network device or appliance capable of communicating on any type andform of network and performing the operations described herein. FIGS. 19and 20 depict block diagrams of a computing device 600 useful forpracticing an embodiment of the client 512 and/or a server 516, and thusby extension any unit or combination of units 12, 14, 18 and 20 of theorder fulfillment system 10 of the present invention. As shown in FIGS.19 and 20, each computing device 600 includes a central processing unit530, and a main memory unit 532. As shown in FIG. 19, a computing device600 may include a storage device 538, an installation device 540, anetwork interface 542, an I/O controller 544, display devices 546 a-546n, a keyboard 548 and a pointing device 550, e.g. a mouse. The storagedevice 538 may include, without limitation, an operating system, and/orsoftware. As shown in FIG. 20, each computing device 600 may alsoinclude additional optional elements, e.g. a memory port 552, a bridge554, one or more input/output devices 560 a-560 n (generally referred tousing reference numeral 560), and a cache memory 562 in communicationwith the central processing unit 530.

The central processing unit 530 is any logic circuitry that responds toand processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 564. Inmany embodiments, the central processing unit 530 is provided by amicroprocessor unit, e.g.: those manufactured by Intel Corporation ofMountain View, Calif; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation ofSchaumburg, Ill.; the ARM processor and TEGRA system on a chip (SoC)manufactured by Nvidia of Santa Clara, Calif; the POWER7 processor,those manufactured by International Business Machines of White Plains,N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale,Calif. The computing device 600 may be based on any of these processors,or any other processor capable of operating as described herein. Thecentral processing unit 530 may utilize instruction level parallelism,thread level parallelism, different levels of cache, and multi-coreprocessors. A multi-core processor may include two or more processingunits on a single computing component. Examples of multi-core processorsinclude the AMD PHENOM IIX2, INTEL CORE i5 and INTEL CORE i7.

Main memory unit or main memory storage unit 564 may include one or morememory chips capable of storing data and allowing any storage locationto be directly accessed by the processor 530. The main memory unit 564may be volatile and faster than memory of the storage unit 538. Mainmemory units 564 may be Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or anyvariants, including static random access memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM orSynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM), Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM), Enhanced DRAM(EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM (EDO RAM), Extended Data Output DRAM(EDO DRAM), Burst Extended Data Output DRAM (BEDO DRAM), Single DataRate Synchronous DRAM (SDR SDRAM), Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM),Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), or Extreme Data Rate DRAM (XDR DRAM). Insome embodiments, the main memory 564 or the storage 538 may benon-volatile, e.g., non-volatile read access memory (NVRAM), flashmemory non-volatile static RAM (nvSRAM), Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM),Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Phase-change memory (PRAM),conductive-bridging RAM (CBRAM), Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon(SONOS), Resistive RAM (RRAM), Racetrack, Nano-RAM (NRAM), or Millipedememory. The main memory 564 may be based on any of the above describedmemory chips, or any other available memory chips capable of operatingas described herein. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 19, the processor530 communicates with main memory 532 via a system bus 570 (described inmore detail below). FIG. 20 depicts an embodiment of a computing device600 in which the processor communicates directly with main memory 564via a memory port 552. For example, in FIG. 20 the main memory 564 maybe DRDRAM. The computer executable instructions of the present inventionmay be provided using any computer-readable media that is accessible bythe computing or electronic device 600. Computer-readable media mayinclude, for example, the computer memory or storage unit 564, 538described above. The computer storage media may also include, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other opticalstorage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission mediumthat can be used to store information for access by a computing device.In contrast, communication media may embody computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in amodulated data signal, such as a carrier wave, or other transportmechanism. As defined herein, computer readable storage media does notinclude communication media. Therefore, a computer storage or memorymedium should not be interpreted to be a propagating signal per se orstated another transitory in nature. The propagated signals may bepresent in a computer storage media, but propagated signals per se arenot examples of computer storage media, which is intended to benon-transitory. Although the computer memory or storage unit 564, 538 isshown within the computing device 600 it will be appreciated that thestorage may be distributed or located remotely and accessed via anetwork or other communication link.

FIG. 20 depicts an embodiment in which the main processor 530communicates directly with cache memory 562 via a secondary bus,sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In other embodiments, the mainprocessor 530 communicates with cache memory 562 using the system bus570. Cache memory 562 typically has a faster response time than mainmemory 564 and is typically provided by SRAM, B SRAM, or EDRAM. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 20, the processor 530 communicates with variousI/O devices 560 via a local system bus 570. Various buses may be used toconnect the central processing unit 530 to any of the I/O devices 560,including a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, or a PCI-Express bus, or a NuBus. Forembodiments in which the I/O device is a video display 546, theprocessor 530 may use an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) to communicatewith the display 546 or the I/O controller 544 for the display 546. FIG.20 depicts an embodiment of a computer 600 in which the main processor530 communicates directly with I/O device 560 b or other processors 530via HYPERTRANSPORT, RAPIDIO, or INFINIBAND communications technology.FIG. 20 also depicts an embodiment in which local busses and directcommunication are mixed: the processor 530 communicates with I/O device560 a using a local interconnect bus while communicating with I/O device560 b directly.

A wide variety of I/O devices 560 a-560 n may be present in thecomputing device 600. Input devices may include keyboards, mice,trackpads, trackballs, touchpads, touch mice, multi-touch touchpads andtouch mice, microphones, multi-array microphones, drawing tablets,cameras, single-lens reflex camera (SLR), digital SLR (DSLR), CMOSsensors, accelerometers, infrared optical sensors, pressure sensors,magnetometer sensors, angular rate sensors, depth sensors, proximitysensors, ambient light sensors, gyroscopic sensors, or other sensors.Output devices may include video displays, graphical displays, speakers,headphones, and printers such as inkjet printers, laser printers, and 3Dprinters.

Devices 560 a-560 n may include a combination of multiple input oroutput devices, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, Nintendo Wiimote forthe WIT, Nintendo WII U GAMEPAD, or Apple IPHONE. Some devices 560 a-560n allow gesture recognition inputs through combining some of the inputsand outputs. Some devices 560 a-560 n provides for facial recognitionwhich may be utilized as an input for different purposes includingauthentication and other commands. Some devices 560 a-560 n provides forvoice recognition and inputs, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, SIRIfor IPHONE by Apple, Amazon Alexa, Google Now or Google Voice Search.

Additional devices 560 a-560 n have both input and output capabilities,including, e.g., haptic feedback devices, touchscreen displays, ormulti-touch displays. Touchscreen, multi-touch displays, touchpads,touch mice, or other touch sensing devices may use differenttechnologies to sense touch, including, e.g., capacitive, surfacecapacitive, projected capacitive touch (PCT), in-cell capacitive,resistive, infrared, waveguide, dispersive signal touch (DST), in-celloptical, surface acoustic wave (SAW), bending wave touch (BWT), orforce-based sensing technologies. Some multi-touch devices may allow twoor more contact points with the surface, allowing advanced functionalityincluding, e.g., pinch, spread, rotate, scroll, or other gestures. Sometouchscreen devices, including, e.g., Microsoft PIXEL SENSE orMulti-Touch Collaboration Wall, may have larger surfaces, such as on atable-top or on a wall, and may also interact with other electronicdevices. Some I/O devices 560 a-560 n, display devices 546 a-546 n orgroup of devices may be augment reality devices. The I/O devices may becontrolled by an I/O controller 44 as shown in FIG. 19. The I/Ocontroller may control one or more I/O devices, such as, e.g., akeyboard 548 and a pointing device 550, e.g., a mouse or optical pen.Furthermore, an I/O device may also provide storage and/or aninstallation medium 540 for the computing device 600. In still otherembodiments, the computing device 600 may provide USB connections (notshown) to receive handheld USB storage devices. In further embodiments,an I/O device 560 may be a bridge between the system bus 570 and anexternal communication bus, e.g. a USB bus, a SCSI bus, a FireWire bus,an Ethernet bus, a Gigabit Ethernet bus, a Fibre Channel bus, or aThunderbolt bus.

In some embodiments, display devices 546 a-546 n may be connected to I/Ocontroller 544. Display devices may include, e.g., liquid crystaldisplays (LCD), thin film transistor LCD (TFT-LCD), blue phase LCD,electronic papers (e-ink) displays, flexile displays, light emittingdiode displays (LED), digital light processing (DLP) displays, liquidcrystal on silicon (LCOS) displays, organic light-emitting diode (OLED)displays, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays,liquid crystal laser displays, time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS)displays, or 3D displays. Examples of 3D displays may use, e.g.stereoscopy, polarization filters, active shutters, or autostereoscopy.Display devices 546 a-546 n may also be a head-mounted display (HIVID).In some embodiments, display devices 546 a-546 n or the correspondingI/O controllers 544 may be controlled through or have hardware supportfor OPENGL or DIRECTX API or other graphics libraries.

In some embodiments, the computing device 600 may include or connect tomultiple display devices 546 a-546 n, which each may be of the same ordifferent type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices 560 a-560 nand/or the I/O controller 544 may include any type and/or form ofsuitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software tosupport, enable or provide for the connection and use of multipledisplay devices 546 a-546 n by the computing device 600. For example,the computing device 600 may include any type and/or form of videoadapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface, communicate,connect or otherwise use the display devices 546 a-546 n. In oneembodiment, a video adapter may include multiple connectors to interfaceto multiple display devices 546 a-546 n. In other embodiments, thecomputing device 600 may include multiple video adapters, with eachvideo adapter connected to one or more of the display devices 546 a-546n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of thecomputing device 600 may be configured for using multiple displays 546a-546 n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices 546a-546 n may be provided by one or more other computing devices 600 a or600 b connected to the computing device 600, via the network 514. Insome embodiments software may be designed and constructed to use anothercomputer's display device as a second display device 546 a for thecomputing device 600. For example, in one embodiment, an Apple iPad mayconnect to a computing device 600 and use the display of the device 600as an additional display screen that may be used as an extended desktop.One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate thevarious ways and embodiments that a computing device 600 may beconfigured to have multiple display devices 546 a-546 n.

Referring again to FIG. 19, the computing device 600 may comprise astorage device 538 (e.g. one or more hard disk drives or redundantarrays of independent disks) for storing an operating system or otherrelated software, and for storing application software programs such asany program related to the software 580 for the order fulfillment system10 of the present invention. Examples of storage devices 538 include,e.g., hard disk drive (HDD); optical drive including CD drive, DVDdrive, or BLU-RAY drive; solid-state drive (SSD); USB flash drive; orany other device suitable for storing data. Some storage devices mayinclude multiple volatile and non-volatile memories, including, e.g.,solid state hybrid drives that combine hard disks with solid statecache. The storage device 538 may be non-volatile, mutable, orread-only. The storage device 538 may be internal and connect to thecomputing device 600 via a bus 570. Further, the storage device 538 maybe external and connect to the computing device 600 via an I/O device560 that provides an external bus. Some storage devices 538 may connectto the computing device 600 via the network interface 542 over a network514, including, e.g., the Remote Disk for MACBOOK AIR by Apple. Someclient devices 512 may not require a non-volatile storage device 538 andmay be thin clients or zero clients 512. The storage device 538 may alsobe used as an installation device 540, and may be suitable forinstalling software and programs. Additionally, the operating system andthe software can be run from a bootable medium, for example, a bootableCD, e.g. KNOPPIX, a bootable CD for GNU/Linux that is available as aGNU/Linux distribution from knoppix.net.

The computing device 600 may also install software or application froman application distribution platform. Examples of applicationdistribution platforms include the App Store for iOS provided by Apple,Inc., the Mac App Store provided by Apple, Inc., GOOGLE PLAY for AndroidOS provided by Google Inc., Chrome Webstore for CHROME OS provided byGoogle Inc., and Amazon Appstore for Android OS and KINDLE FIRE providedby Amazon.com, Inc. An application distribution platform may facilitateinstallation of software on a client device 512. An applicationdistribution platform may include a repository of applications on aserver 516 or a cloud 520, which the clients 512 a-512 n may access overa network 514. An application distribution platform may includeapplication developed and provided by various developers. A user of aclient device 512 may select, purchase and/or download an applicationvia the application distribution platform.

Furthermore, the computing device 600 may include a network interface542 to interface to the network 514 through a variety of connectionsincluding, but not limited to, standard telephone lines LAN or WAN links(e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, Gigabit Ethernet, Infiniband), broadbandconnections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet,Ethernet-over-SONET, ADSL, VDSL, BPON, GPON, fiber optical includingFiOS), wireless connections, or some combination of any or all of theabove. Connections can be established using a variety of communicationprotocols (e.g., TCP/IP, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber DistributedData Interface (FDDI), IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac CDMA, GSM, WiMax and directasynchronous connections). In one embodiment, the computing device 600communicates with other computing devices 600′ via any type and/or formof gateway or tunneling protocol e.g. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) orTransport Layer Security (TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocolmanufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The networkinterface 542 may comprise a built-in network adapter, network interfacecard, PCMCIA network card, EXPRESSCARD network card, card bus networkadapter, wireless network adapter, USB network adapter, modem or anyother device suitable for interfacing the computing device 600 to anytype of network capable of communication and performing the operationsdescribed herein.

The computing device 600 of the sort depicted in FIG. 19 may operateunder the control of an operating system, which controls scheduling oftasks and access to system resources. The computing device 600 can berunning any operating system such as any of the versions of theMICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of the Unixand Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS for Macintoshcomputers, any embedded operating system, any real-time operatingsystem, any open source operating system, any proprietary operatingsystem, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, or any otheroperating system capable of running on the computing device andperforming the operations described herein. Typical operating systemsinclude, but are not limited to: WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS Server 2012,WINDOWS CE, WINDOWS Phone, WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS VISTA, and WINDOWS 7,WINDOWS RT, and WINDOWS 8 all of which are manufactured by MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, Wash.; MAC OS and iOS, manufactured by Apple,Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.; and Linux, a freely-available operatingsystem, e.g. Linux Mint distribution (“distro”) or Ubuntu, distributedby Canonical Ltd. of London, United Kingom; or Unix or other Unix-likederivative operating systems; and Android, designed by Google, ofMountain View, Calif, among others. Some operating systems, including,e.g., the CHROME OS by Google, may be used on zero clients or thinclients, including, e.g., CHROMEBOOK S.

The computer system 600 can be any workstation, telephone, desktopcomputer, laptop or notebook computer, netbook, ULTRABOOK, tablet,server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, smartphone or otherportable telecommunications device, media playing device, a gamingsystem, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form ofcomputing, telecommunications or media device that is capable ofcommunication. The computer system 600 has sufficient processor powerand memory capacity to perform the operations described herein. In someembodiments, the computing device 600 may have different processors,operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device. TheSamsung GALAXY smartphones, e.g., operate under the control of Androidoperating system developed by Google, Inc. GALAXY smartphones receiveinput via a touch interface.

In some embodiments, the computing device 600 is a digital audio playersuch as the Apple IPOD, IPOD Touch, and IPOD NANO lines of devices,manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif. Some digital audioplayers may have other functionality, including, e.g., a gaming systemor any functionality made available by an application from a digitalapplication distribution platform. For example, the IPOD Touch mayaccess the Apple App Store. In some embodiments, the computing device600 is a portable media player or digital audio player supporting fileformats including, but not limited to, MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, WMA ProtectedAAC, AIFF, Audible audiobook, Apple Lossless audio file formats and.mov, .m4v, and .mp4 MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) video file formats.

In some embodiments, the computing device 600 is a tablet e.g. the IPADline of devices by Apple; GALAXY TAB family of devices by Samsung; orKINDLE FIRE, by Amazon.com, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. In other embodiments,the computing device 600 is an eBook reader, e.g. the KINDLE family ofdevices by Amazon.com, or NOOK family of devices by Barnes & Noble, Inc.of New York City, N.Y.

In some embodiments, the computing device 600 includes a combination ofdevices, e.g. a smartphone combined with a digital audio player orportable media player. For example, one of these embodiments is asmartphone, e.g. the IPHONE family of smartphones manufactured by Apple,Inc.; a Samsung GALAXY family of smartphones manufactured by Samsung,Inc; or a Motorola DROID family of smartphones. In yet anotherembodiment, the computing device 600 is a laptop or desktop computerequipped with a web browser and a microphone and speaker system, e.g. atelephony headset. In these embodiments, the computing devices 600 areweb-enabled and can receive and initiate phone calls. In someembodiments, a laptop or a desktop computer is also equipped with awebcam or other video capture device that enables video chat and videocall. In some embodiments, the computing device 600 is a wearable mobilecomputing device including but not limited to Google Glass and SamsungGear.

In some embodiments, the status of one or more machines 512, 516 in thenetwork 514 is monitored, generally as part of network management. Inone of these embodiments, the status of a machine may include anidentification of load information (e.g., the number of processes on themachine, CPU and memory utilization), of port information (e.g., thenumber of available communication ports and the port addresses), or ofsession status (e.g., the duration and type of processes, and whether aprocess is active or idle). In another of these embodiments, thisinformation may be identified by a plurality of metrics, and theplurality of metrics can be applied at least in part towards decisionsin load distribution, network traffic management, and network failurerecovery as well as any aspects of operations of the present solutiondescribed herein. Aspects of the operating environments and componentsdescribed above will become apparent in the context of the orderfulfillment system disclosed herein.

The foregoing description may provide illustration and description ofvarious embodiments of the invention, but is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed.Modifications and variations of the order fulfillment system of thepresent invention may be possible in light of the above teachings or maybe acquired from practice of the invention. For example, while a seriesof acts has been described above, the order of the acts may be modifiedin other implementations consistent with the principles of theinvention. Further, non-dependent acts may be performed in parallel.

In addition, one or more implementations consistent with principles ofthe invention may be implemented using one or more devices and/orconfigurations other than those illustrated in the Figures and describedin the Specification without departing from the spirit of the invention.One or more devices and/or components may be added and/or removed fromthe implementations of the figures depending on specific deploymentsand/or applications. Also, one or more disclosed implementations may notbe limited to a specific combination of hardware. Furthermore, certainportions of the invention may be implemented as logic that may performone or more functions. This logic may include hardware, such ashardwired logic, an application-specific integrated circuit, a fieldprogrammable gate array, a microprocessor, software, or a combination ofhardware and software.

No element, act, or instruction used in the description of the inventionshould be construed critical or essential to the invention unlessexplicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” isintended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended,the term “a single” or similar language is used. Further, the phrase“based on,” as used herein is intended to mean “based, at least in part,on” unless explicitly stated otherwise. In addition, the term “user”, asused herein, is intended to be broadly interpreted to include, forexample, an electronic device (e.g., a workstation) or a user of anelectronic device, unless otherwise stated.

Further, the invention can be employed using any combination of featuresor elements as described above, and are not limited to the currentrecited steps or features.

It is intended that the invention not be limited to the particularembodiments disclosed above, but that the invention will include any andall particular embodiments and equivalents falling within the scope ofthe following appended claims.

We claim:
 1. A customer order fulfillment system, comprising an ordercollection unit for collecting information associated with a pluralityof customer orders from a plurality of customers and generating customerorder data that includes data associated with each of the plurality ofcustomer orders and the plurality of customers, wherein each of theplurality of customer order includes one or more items associatedtherewith, an order generating unit for receiving the customer orderdata from the order collection unit and generating in response theretoconsolidated order fulfillment data, a pick tour generating subsystemfor receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the ordergenerating unit and in response thereto generating pick instructionsassociated with a pick tour or a pick tour plan from the consolidatedorder fulfillment data, a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for receivingthe consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unitand grouping together similar ones of the items associated with theplurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks, whereinone or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or morebulk pick tours, and an automated fulfillment system for receiving theconsolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit andfor automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customerorder from one or more carousels, wherein the automated fulfillmentsystem is configured for receiving the pick tour plan or the pick tourand for automatically selecting the items in the customer order setforth in the pick tour plan or the pick tour from the one or morecarousels, and is configured for receiving one or more of the pluralityof bulk picks for automatically selecting one or more of the items inthe customer order from the one or more carousels.